Process of manufacturing yarn.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN S. BUTTERWORTH, OF WALLINGFORD, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO BENJAMIN O. FOX, OF CHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA.

PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING- YARN.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented March 24, 1908.

tured from wool, one known as woolen, the

other as worsted. Of these, worsted yarn is the higher gradefbecause of the fineness of the threads and consequent high number of counts to the pound. However,- as the stock has to be of comparatively high grade and has to go through a number of prelim1- nary combing processes wherein the short fiber is necessarily eliminated, the cost of pro duction of worsteds is materially greater than the cost of manufacturing woolen yarn. Though it has heretofore been impossible, so far as I am aware, to produce as fine a woolen yarn as a worsted from the same grade of wool, yet, in the roduction of woolen yarn, a low grade short ber stock can be employed that is merely carded prior to its being spun. Nevertheless, the fineness of the woolen yarn being limited and the fineness of count being an important item, worsteds, notwithstanding their greater cost, are necessarily employed in the better grades of cloth. The distinction between these two classes of yarn will be apparent when it is considered that a one-fourth blood grade of wool can be combed into worsted yarn having 17,192 yards per pound, while the same Wool, if made into a carded yarn, cannot be reduced into a count of yarn having more than 7,500 yards per pound, the same approximate difference between the carding and combing systems of making wool into yarn extending all through the different commercial grades of wool.

The primary object of the present invention is to rovide a novel and simple process wherein, rom carded stock of practically any grade, strong, even and smooth yarn can be effectively produced with substantially any fineness of count desired, said yarn having the appearance of worsted and the process being without the expense or waste incident to the production of the latter.

A further object is to provide a process of the above character that will not involve any change in the carding, spinning, and other mechanisms ordinarily employed, nor in the operation of said mechanisms.

In carrying out the invention, a stock is first formed composed of a mixture of vegetable and animal fibers, as, for instance, wool and cotton, though other types, such as jute, and the like, may be employed in place of cotton, if found desirable. This composite stock is carded in the ordinary manner and spun into a single strand yarn. A plurality of said strands of the composite fiber are then twisted into a multiple ply yarn. This multiple ply yarn is reeled into a hank or skein, and the skein is subjected to an acid treatment whereby the vegetable fiber is carbonized, leaving the yarn composed of the animal fiber. Furthermore in producing the multiple ply yarn, the same is twisted in the opposite direction, and given a different number of turns or twists to the inch from the single ply.

A specific manner of carrying out the process is as follows. The stock is first formed into a pile composed of alternate layers of wool and cotton, the percentage of the latter being varied as desired. The pile is then torn down through the center and passed through the usual burs and mixing mechanism, wherein the two types of fibers are thoroughly commingled, after which said stock is delivered to the carding apparatus and is afterwards spun into sin le strand threads of the fineness of the or inary carded wool yarn. The single strand yarn or thread is then doubled or plied the desired number of times and twisted in an opposite direction. For instance, the single strand or thread may have eight turns or twists to the inch in either direction, but when the multiple ply yarn or thread is produced, the latter may have twenty turns or twists in the reverse direction from the twist that is placed in the single yarn. The result is a doubled or multiple ply thread or yarn with twelve turns or twists to the inch, and this multiple ply thread consists of the composite vegetable and animal fiber. It is then reeled into a hank or skein and subjected to a carbonizing action.

Any of the well known acids for destroying or carbonizing the vegetable fibers may be employed, as, for instance, sulfuric, muriatic, or hydrochloric, nitric, or aluminium chlorid. This acid treatment may be either by dipping the yarn into the acid bath or by exposing such yarn to the gases thereof. In either case, the saturated, impregnated, or treated skeins or hanks are hung in a heated chamber, or otherwise exposed to the action of the heat. The vegetable fiber is thus destroyed and can be shaken and beaten out as dust, leaving intact a strong multiple ply yarn, composed of the remaining animal fiber. This process, though involving, in addition to the production of ordinary woolen yarn, the use of an acid bath and the destruction of vegetable fiber, is much less expensive than the combing method for manufacturing worsteds. At the same time, a fine yarn is produced, the number of counts of which can be readily varied by the percentage of vegetable fiber incorporated and afterwards eliminated. Furthermore, yarn of a high number of counts to the pound can be manufactured from material which it is impossible to make into genuine worsted, as, for instance, short fiber, shoddy and the like. In addition, it may be stated that, Where long fiber wool of high grades is employed, the short fibers mixed therein are spun with the rest and are not discarded or wasted as in the combing methods employed in the production of worsteds. Moreover, with the above described process, any of the well known mixtures of shoddy and wool or like fibers can still be employed.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is;

1. The process of producing yarn, which consists in forming a stock of material composed of a mixture of vegetable and animal fibers, spinning a single strand yarn of combined vegetable and animal fibers from said stock, twisting a plurality of said single strand yarns together to produce a multiple ply yarn, each ply being formed of the combined vegetable and animal fiber, and afterwards, prior to formin fabric therefrom, carbonizing the vegetab e fiber in the multiple ply yarn, leaving a yarn of multiple ply composed exclusively of animal fiber.

2. The process of producing yarn, which consists in forming a stock of material composed of a thoroughly commingled mixture of animal and vegetable fibers, spinning a single strand yarn of combined vegetable and animal fibers from said composite stock with a predetermined number of twists to the inch, twisting together a plurality of said single strands in a direction opposed to the twists of the single strand and with a different number of twists to the inch to produce a multiple ply yarn of said composite stock, each ply thereof being formed of both the animal and vegetable fiber, forming said multiple ply yarn into hanks or skeins, and carbonizing the vegetable fiber in said yarn while formed into said hanks or skeins, leaving hanks or skeins of multiple ply yarn composed exclusively of animal fiber.

In testimony, that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN S. BUTTERWORTH.

Witnesses:

G. I. STITELER, E. A. HOWELL. 

